We have purchased a brand
new one of the first in the country 2015 WRX STI
Type UK, which will be used for research and development
(and the odd track day ;) giving us the edge in
the very latest Subaru developments. We have already
been busy modifying! #WR14SCR

Background

Riding on the back of our 22B since 1999 as a development platform
for tuning packages and products, we decided it was time for
a change...

We have already tuned hundreds of 01 to 07 cars, products developed
on the 22B all cross pollinated, 57 plate on WRX and STI included
but it
was time for a change and with the 22B restored and sold a decision
was made to get the new WRX STI 2015 saloon as a bang up to
date test bed
for developing new products and tuning packages.

When Subaru announced they were no longer going to produce the
Impreza it was a sad day indeed, the much loved car would be
missed and of
course from a servicing, modifying and tuning point of view
it meant our customer base would dwindle away slowly as it has
already done with the
early classic as they fail MOT's, get written off and fall into
the hands of people who don’t realise they have bough
a thorough bred racehorse, and need proper looking after, add
to this the low volume sales of the hatch and 2012 saloon it
looked like we at scoobyclinic may have to diversify.

New model

Music to our ears was the announcement that Subaru were
to release a new saloon, not an impreza but now known
as the 2015 WRX STI saloon, a chance to purchase one of
the first cars to land in Britain came our way courtesy
of Crossroads Subaru in Warwickshire, deal done and a
new chapter of development begins ...

One thing Subaru have never shied away from is distinctive
looks, there are too many cars on the roads sharing the
same body shell, is it a P eugeot, is it a Citroen, Nissan,
Kia or Ford ??? When you see a Subaru you know its a Subaru
and the styling of this car certainly maintains that.

Improvements

Subtle changes from the 2012 saloon like moving the door mirrors
onto the door and giving the driver a small window to look though
instead of
a blind spot where the mirrors used to be, lower roof line,
screen raked back more and doors that open so wide cabin access
is fantastic.

The new saloon is 40% stiffer to using high tensile steel throughout
its floor-pan and chassis, and it shows, what a chassis this
is, first drive
and wow its as stiff as a car with a cage, stunning, Power delivery
is right on the money with almost no lag due to the immense
torque produced by the flat four 2.5 ltr engine, plenty of toys
but not to many like some modern cars are full of, nice displays
throughout the instruments and a built in boost gauge colour
display, nice touch.

One thing we didn’t like was the traction control, several
members of staff, and our pro race driver commented on the fact
that default was
traction control on and in this mode you would think the car
was torque steering when accelerating and as the Subaru layout
CANNOT torque steer
due to equal length drive shafts it had to be the traction control,
and once turned off the car is nothing short of amazing straight
out of the box.

Rolling Road time

A dyno power run when the car had only covered 97 miles showed
266 BHP a fair bit off its claimed factory figure, a few more
miles later the
engine had bed in and loosened up and the car produced 299 BHP,
bang on the money, several more runs to test this showed our
car settled at a
comfy 290 BHP, at least we had a figure to work from to develop
our performance packages.

A decision was made to test the new car on track with our pro
race driver at the wheel, Andy Mckenna.

Track
time

Meeting Andy at Blyton park in Gainsborough,
he donned his race suit and went out for a couple of laps
to get used to the car in standard form, he came back
in stating" that’s a proper car with bags of
potential", helmet on and out to get a time, lets
see what this car can do.... a warm up lap, a flash of
the headlamps and the fast laps began, a few laps in and
a very good time of 1.16,34 was achieved, all be it not
on official timing gear as we were not allowed to use
it but it was cross referenced by several of the team
to check it was correct.

Andy came back in stating the brakes needed upgrading
even as a standard car, true as the discs were cherry
red and the pads were on fire, see attachment.

Interviewed by a film crew producing
Suabru Uk's new motor-sport based web site, (yes they
have finally listened to their customers), Andy stated
"Out of the box that is stunning, it ought to come
with a government health warning, this car will make a
bad driver good, and a good driver better, any one jumping
straight out of a run of the mill car into this needs
to take time to learn just how potent this car is, engine
and chassis both amazing, once the traction control is
turned off".

Next up will be a report on the SCr PP#1 and back
to back testing of the PP#1 against the standard car,
same day, same conditions ...